Sr85, Fe59, Rb86 and Na22 were incorporated into media in which the snail Australortis glabratus was growing. The uptake, distribution, and degradation of each of the nuclides was studied. This snail takes up and concentrates Strontium > Iron > Rubidium > Sodium. Iron-59 was the only isotope transferred to the egg in appreciable quantities. The snail may serve as a biological indicator of low level radioactivity. The application of radioactive tagging to field studies of the ecology and population dyamics of snail intermediate hosts of parasitic diseases is proposed.

Toxicological, biochemical, pathological and immunological studies were performed on the venoms of Walterinnesia aegyptia and Pseudocerastes fieldii and their chromatographic fractions. Both venoms are predominantly neurotoxic, but possess also hemorrhagic and hepatotoxic activity.

In vitro activities common to the venoms of both snakes are protease, phosphatidase A and hyaluronidase. Walterinnesia in addition has 1-amino acid oxidase, weak anticoagulant and fibrinolytic activity. Pseudocerastes possesses a direct hemolysin, demonstrable only in a chromatographically separated fraction.

Evidence was brought forward proving that the neurotoxic activity of W. aegyptia venom was not related to its phosphatidase A content. W. aegyptia venom was found to contain a hemorrhagin, the action of which is not due to proteolytic enzymes.

Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy—1961. Proceedings of the First Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, New York City, October 31–November 12, 1961, Maxwell Finland and George M. Savage, editors.

This is a text designed for undergraduate and graduate students in biology. To the majority of the readers of this Journal it would be of little direct use. Although the protozoa parasitic in man are effectively covered, the coverage is abbreviated and not directly oriented for the clinician or the public health worker. Nevertheless, both of these groups will find valuable background material not normally included in a clinical or preventive medicine text.

The biology and interrelations of the protozoa, including comparative physiology, is more thoroughly covered than in any of the competing texts the reviewer has seen. The classification and taxonomy is adequately covered and yet the text is not taxonomically oriented. The attempted coverage is rather ambitious and reasonably well documented, but the successive chapters on various aspects of biology perforce require recurrent cross-references on specific organisms. This troubled the reviewer and he developed the suspicion that the beginning student might get a little lost and confused. Of the 642 pages the first 264 pages, in 13 chapters, are given over to the more general coverage: Chapter 1 Nature, Variety, Habitat; 2 Microscope and Protozoology; 3 Antiquity of the Protozoa; 4 Ecology; 5 Morphology; 6 Nutrition; 7 Metabolism; 8 Locomotion; 9 Growth and Differentiation; 10 Encystment; 11 Reproduction; 12 Genetics; and 13 Principles and Problems of Classification.

The author has undertaken an enormous task and the result is a most valuable contribution. The problems of public health in the tropics cannot be solved by the same methods as the ones of highly developed communities in the temperate zones. The book deserves attentive study for in it are raised in a generally refreshing new way such essential questions as meterorpathology, food sanitation, the problems of milk and water, the control of rodents and arthropods, preventive vaccination and chimisprophylacis, and a wealth of information on national and international public health regulations.

The text is concise and up to date. The illustrations are excellent. Teachers in all grades and undergraduate and graduate students will find it an excellent text book while workers in the field will appreciate using this concise and yet almost encyclopedic manual.

It would be difficult within the space available to do justice to this fine volume devoted to leeches, a relatively little known, but very important group of animals to the parasitologist. As indicated in the preface, it was written primarily for the honor student in zoology. As such, it compiles within its 201 pages a tremendous wealth of information. This is the first account in English of the structure, physiology, ecology and embryology of leeches, with emphasis being placed upon their ecology and physiology. The ecological section is based primarily upon the author's research, an area in which he has distinguished himself. The work forming the basis for the physiology section has been published mainly in German and there has not been a review on the subject for more than two decades. There is sufficient anatomy and systematics to provide a useful introduction to students, teachers, research workers as well as the more serious-minded general readers.

This 30-year-old textbook has gone through 7 editions and 15 reprintings, testimony to its usefulness. The spirochaetes, protozoa and helminths infecting man are considered. The common arthropods which invade, bite, or sting man are not included. The section on technic is adequate for the usual office routine. The material is well organized and clearly presented and the extensive use of drawings add to its clarity.

For a book that is “intended for the practitioner” the inclusion of specific therapy would be of considerable value. Likewise, additional emphasis on clinical aspects of the infections, mechanisms of disease causation, and more complete coverage of the clinical laboratory findings would aid in developing a more complete picture of the infections.

This volume with its concise description of the common parasites and the diseases produced by them will be useful not only to practitioners, but also to medical students as well.

The entire March number of the American Journal of Diseases of Children is devoted to publication of the papers presented at the International Conference on Measles Immunization which took place at the National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, from November 7 to 9, 1961. Here are 530 pages of profusely illustrated articles, with detailed bibliographies, covering our entire knowledge of the epidemiologic features of measles in various populations of the world; the pathologic tissue and cell alterations; the serologic studies on measles from early times until the present. The recent data on development of various types of measles vaccine and the experience gained in clinical assay are here to be found in detail.

Readers of the American Journal of Tropical Medicine are sure to find articles of interest, with statistics on morbidity, mortality, complications of measles in India, Nigeria, Chile, Australia, South Africa; and studies on the development of detectable measles antibody at varying ages in different populations.

This is the first volume of a newly projected annual review series dealing with immunology. The editors state that “The primary purpose of Advances in Immunology will be to present timely reviews of topics in immunology that not only will serve to keep investigators informed, but will also try to unify the concepts underlying this highly diversified yet technically specialized subject.” Articles will stress fundamental concepts and attempt to evaluate the various experimental approaches. It is planned to have about eight chapters in each volume.

Immunologists as well as many scientists in other fields including medicine will welcome a common outlet for reviews dealing with immunology and basic immune mechanisms. With the increasing interest in immunology, and all of its ramifications, it becomes increasingly important to try to unify concepts and to present them in a publication devoted entirely to such problems.The editors are well suited for the task of organizing and supervising such a review series since their interests and experiences for many years have encompassed physical, biological and medical aspects of immunology.

This atlas consists of 41 pages of text and 107 photomicrographs. The text is well organized, with brief discussions of the various diseases followed by an outline of the histologic features. The photomicrographs depict the various histologic changes quite well with only several exceptions.

The book has the decided advantage of being concise and can be read easily in one evening. The reader will be surprised at the large amount of information contained in this small volume. It should prove useful as an adjunct to the larger comprehensive texts on the liver.

The first edition of this volume (Animal Agents and Vectors of Human Disease) was written by Dr. Ernest Carroll Faust alone. In the second edition he has been joined by Dr. Paul C. Beaver and Dr. Rodney C. Jung who are outstanding investigators and teachers in the field of parasitic diseases. These three authors have brought a completely modern approach to this volume.

The table of contents contains five sections: I. Introduction, which considers orientation and parasite host relations. Section II. The protozoan agents, including the flagellates, the amebae, the ciliates, the coccidia which include malaria and sarcosporidea, and protozoa of undetermined relationship. Section III. The helminths, the roundworms, the flatworms and leeches. Section IV. Arthropods as agents and vectors. Section V. Technical aids. This is followed by author and subject indexes from pages 471 to 485.

This small volume is an agreeably readable introduction to the subject of immunochemical specificity. The author has deliberately retained much of the lecture form of the original presentation of this material and has amplified this with numerous clear, illustrative diagrams and tables. In addition, there is sufficient introductory material for each of the separate aspects considered that the intelligent non-specialist can readily appreciate the concepts and the data presented. However, the author has shown admirable restraint in minimizing this so that it remains a book that the immunologist or those investigating immunologic phenomena of parasitism will find of interest and of value. The text is divided into ten chapters, the first being a general introduction to immunity and the concept of antibody specificity. The second continues this theme giving more details of historical and modern concepts of antibody specificity as these relate to the chemical structure of antigens.This is followed by a discussion of the current theories of antibody formation.

This is the seventeenth volume of the history of the U. S. Army Medical Department in World War II prepared by the Historical Unit, U.S. Army Medical Service, and published under the direction of the Surgeon General. It is the first of three projected volumes dealing with Internal Medicine. The other volumes which have appeared so far have dealt with Administration, Preventive Medicine, General Surgery, and a number of Surgical Specialties.

The present volume, entitled Activities of Medical Consultants, deals with the organization and activities of the consultant system. Its nine chapters were written by thirteen authors, the majority of whom had been distinguished clinicians in civilian life and who had served during the war as Consultants either in Overseas Theaters, in the Zone of the Interior, or both. Although a Consultant System had functioned in World War I, the peace-time Army of the thirties had not recognized a need for a consultant service in its medical operations.